Grinding the blade against the table reminded Sid of school: scratching words into the underside of his desk as his history teacher droned on about the French revolution. The messages he left for her got him expelled. This message would be much worse.

Sid chuckled, sneering as he plunged a ragged full stop into the wood. The breath he used to scatter the splinters was almost tender; a love letter to the detective chasing him.

He laid two severed fingers on the desk and sheathed the knife, three words cut in stark, bloody capitals: “See you Soon.”

(c) Tim Austin 2016

Today’s word, “Knife”, was kindly donated by the wonderful Mike Wells, thriller writer extraordinaire and author of the best-selling Lust, Money and Murder books. Thanks for the inspiration, Mike! You can find him on Twitter @MikeWellsAuthor and at mikewellsbooks.com.

Keep those words coming in – tweet them to #onewordonestory and I’ll join you tomorrow for “Sehnsucht”. Follow the blog for a new story every day!